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Laolu Akande rejects Babachir Lawal’s claim that late President Muhammadu Buhari considered Yemi Osinbajo’s 2022 presidential aspiration “immoral”, alleging Buhari repeatedly offered to support his deputy.
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Former Vice President’s spokesman says Lawal fabricated the story of a 28-name appointment memo allegedly delayed for months and disputes the ethnic remarks attributed to Buhari.
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Akande publishes extensive list of Osinbajo’s aides to counter allegations that the former Vice President populated his office with Yoruba people and members of his church.
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He challenges Lawal’s accounts of Okey Enelamah’s ministerial appointment and board nominations under Osinbajo, while suggesting the former SGF’s allegations may be driven by lingering resentment over his removal from Buhari’s government.
October 17, (THEWILL) – Former presidential spokesman, Laolu Akande, has launched a blistering rebuttal of allegations made by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, against former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, describing key portions of Lawal’s account of events inside the Muhammadu Buhari presidency as “pure fiction.”
Akande, who served as Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Osinbajo, specifically rejected Lawal’s claim that the late President Buhari considered Osinbajo’s decision to seek the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket against Bola Tinubu in 2022 “highly immoral” and “distasteful.”
Instead, Akande made the potentially consequential disclosure that Buhari personally offered to support Osinbajo’s presidential aspiration on at least four occasions, allegedly telling his deputy: “If I don’t support you, who will I support?”
The intervention came after Lawal, in an interview with Symfoni TV, claimed Buhari would have considered it inappropriate for Osinbajo to challenge Tinubu because of the political relationship between the former President and Tinubu.
Significantly, Lawal acknowledged that he did not discuss that particular conclusion with Buhari, but said it was based partly on his understanding of the late President and his “body language.”
Lawal also alleged that Buhari had concerns about Osinbajo’s appointments, including an alleged preference for Yoruba people and members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), where the former Vice President is a pastor.
But Akande, in a detailed statement responding to the former SGF, said Lawal’s narrative fundamentally misrepresented events he personally witnessed as Osinbajo’s spokesman.
“I have watched the video in which former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, made a string of allegations against former Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN. Ordinarily, such fabrications would not deserve a response.
“But I served as the Vice President’s spokesperson. I was in the room where many of these decisions were taken.
“And the allegations touch directly on the staff of the Office of the Vice President — of which I was a part. For the sake of the record, facts only must be stated,” Akande said.
Buhari Never Rejected Osinbajo
Taking on perhaps the most politically sensitive part of Lawal’s claims, Akande flatly rejected the suggestion that Buhari regarded Osinbajo’s presidential aspiration as immoral.
“This is false,” he declared.
According to him, Buhari did not merely tolerate Osinbajo’s ambition but repeatedly indicated his willingness to support him.
“On at least four separate occasions, President Buhari personally offered to support the Vice President, telling him plainly: ‘If I don’t support you, who will I support?’ He was consistent.”
Akande said Buhari’s conduct during the build-up to the June 2022 APC presidential primary also contradicted Lawal’s portrayal of a President who disapproved of his deputy entering the race against Tinubu.
He recalled that while the presidential campaigns were underway, Buhari publicly commended Osinbajo during a Federal Executive Council meeting for conducting what he considered a dignified and issues-based campaign across the country.
According to Akande, members of the Council witnessed Buhari’s remarks.
“He spoke in a laudatory tone. The entire Council witnessed it. That is not a President who found Osinbajo’s ambition distasteful. That is a President who broached it, encouraged and applauded it,” he said.
Lawal, however, had presented a sharply different account. He argued that Buhari placed a premium on loyalty and would have found Osinbajo’s challenge to Tinubu objectionable because of Tinubu’s relationship with Buhari and his role in the political arrangement that brought Osinbajo into national politics.
Osinbajo eventually contested the APC presidential primary in June 2022 but lost the ticket to Tinubu, who subsequently won the 2023 presidential election.
‘There Was No Such Memo’
Akande also challenged Lawal’s account of an alleged appointment memo containing about 28 names of proposed staff members for the Vice President’s office.
Lawal had claimed the memo was not forwarded to Buhari by then Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, for about three months and that he eventually obtained a photocopy and personally presented it to Buhari.
According to Lawal, Buhari went through the list with a green biro and approved about 26 of the roughly 28 nominees while allegedly raising questions about their ethnic composition.
Akande, who dismissed the account entirely, said:
“Mr. Lawal’s claim that Osinbajo wrote a memo containing over 20 staff names, which was sat on by the President’s Chief of Staff, and which he, Mr. Lawal, then took to President Buhari, is a complete fabrication. There was no such memo.”
He also rejected the ethnic statement Lawal attributed to Buhari.
“Anyone who knew President Buhari knows he does not engage in the kind of snide ethnic profiling Mr. Lawal attributed to him — ‘BD, these are all Yorubas’ . That language and that conduct are alien to President Buhari,” Akande said.
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Akande Explains How Osinbajo’s Appointments Were Made
Akande proceeded to give his own account of the procedure used for appointments in the Vice President’s office, saying Osinbajo enjoyed direct access to Buhari and did not require Lawal to serve as an intermediary.
“The procedure was simple and verifiable: Prof. Osinbajo always had direct access to the President. He took his memos directly to the President, obtained approval, and passed the approved memo to his own Chief of Staff, Mr. Ade Ipaye, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, who then communicated it to the relevant agencies for action. At no stage did this require the SGF, except for the subsequent issuance of appointment letters for staff,” he said.
Akande also sought to dismiss Lawal’s account by challenging its chronology.
He said he resumed work in the Office of the Vice President in June 2015 alongside several colleagues, contrary to the suggestion that the appointment process had been stalled for three months.
“There was no three-month delay. To those of us who were there, this story is pure fiction,” he said.
According to Akande, what happened was that Osinbajo presented different batches of memos to Buhari at different periods for various categories of officials as his office was established and the administration developed new programmes.
“That is standard practice. There was never a single, bloated, religiously and ethnically-charged list,” he said.
‘It Was Never A Church List’
Akande also mounted an extensive rebuttal of Lawal’s allegation that Osinbajo favoured members of his church in government appointments.
Lawal had alleged that Buhari was unhappy about what he considered Osinbajo’s preference for people connected to the RCCG and suggested that the pattern influenced Buhari’s assessment of his deputy as a potential successor.
Akande described the allegation as false and said the composition of Osinbajo’s office was enough to disprove it.
“The Office was one of the most inclusive, pan-Nigerian offices in that government — North, South, East, West, Christian and Muslim. To suggest a narrow church agenda is not only to ignore the facts, but to pursue a curious and worrying vendetta,” he said.
Akande identified Ade Ipaye, then Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, as the most senior official in Osinbajo’s office, noting that he is Muslim.
He said three of Osinbajo’s four Special Advisers were Muslims, identifying Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser on Social Investment; Ahmad Zakari, Special Adviser on Infrastructure; and Senator Babafemi Ojudu. Ambassador Adeyemi Dipeolu was also among the senior advisers.
To reinforce his argument, Akande published a lengthy list of officials who worked under Osinbajo.
They included Balkisu Saidu, Abdullahi Gwary, Emmanuel Bright, Edobor Iyamu, Ismaeel Ahmed, Olayinka Oyeneyin, Fadi Rose Audu, Imeh Patience Okon, Lillian Idiaghe, Arukaino Umukoro, Daniel Ikuenobe, Folarin Alayande, Effiong Essien and Olaolu Beckley.
Others included Abdulrahman Baffa, Rotimi Akinnadeju, Novo Isioro, Feyishayo Aina, Gambo Manzo, Hafiz Ibrahim, Nonye Ojekwe, Nicholas Audifferen, Ayoleke Adu, Ajuri Ngelale, Louis Odion, Foluso Idumu, Edewede Akhidenor, Lanre Osibona, Tolani Alli and Tola Asekun.
Akande also named Damilola Ogunbiyi, Mariam Masha, Chiedu Ugbo, Jumoke Oduwole, Muktar Tijani, Tochi Nwachukwu, Mohammed Brimah, Yahaya Maibe, Jibola Ajayi, Ife Adebayo, Myani Bukar, Nkoli Anyaoku, Phil Obin and Lillian Chukwueke.
“This was a truly national team. It was never a church list,” he insisted.
Akande equally challenged Lawal’s claim concerning Dr Okey Enelamah, who served as Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment under Buhari.
Lawal had sought to link Enelamah’s appointment to his relationship with Osinbajo and the RCCG.
Akande said the narrative was wrong. He said Enelamah was heading one of Africa’s major private equity firms at the time and had been proposed by two individuals in the financial services sector.
According to him, it was Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, who informed Osinbajo that Buhari wanted to appoint Enelamah.
Akande said he vividly remembered the episode because speculation at the time had suggested that Osinbajo was responsible for Enelamah’s nomination. He said he consequently asked Osinbajo directly about the matter.
“I had assumed, like many others, that because Enelamah was close to Osinbajo, he must have nominated him. He did not,” Akande said, adding that Enelamah was alive and could confirm the circumstances surrounding his appointment.
Board Appointments as Acting President
Akande also addressed Lawal’s allegations about Osinbajo’s decisions when he served as Acting President during Buhari’s absences.
Lawal had alleged that some decisions and appointments made while Buhari was away contributed to tensions and Buhari’s reservations about his deputy.
Akande said that interpretation distorted what occurred. According to him, Osinbajo, while Acting President, was constitutionally required to review lists of nominees before they were forwarded for confirmation.
Where changes were made, he said, they resulted from compliance issues involving federal character, age, qualifications or professional requirements.
“President Buhari was fully briefed upon his return and had no issue with those corrections. Due process, not personal preference, guided those decisions,” Akande said.
Akande Raises Babachir’s Removal as SGF
Akande then turned the attack directly on Lawal, suggesting that the former SGF’s latest allegations could be connected to the circumstances surrounding his removal from the Buhari administration.
“I understand that Mr. Lawal may still be reeling from the pains of his removal as SGF,” he said.
Lawal was suspended as SGF in April 2017 following allegations arising from contracts connected with the Presidential Initiative on the North East.
Buhari subsequently constituted a three-member investigative committee chaired by Osinbajo to investigate the allegations against Lawal and then Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke. Lawal was eventually removed as SGF in October 2017.
Akande stressed that allegations against Lawal were already the subject of scrutiny before Buhari directed Osinbajo to head the presidential investigation.
According to him, both the Senate and an Attorney-General’s report had already implicated the former SGF in the allegations.
He further alleged that Lawal “inadvertently provided the evidence” used by the presidential panel in reaching its findings against him.
Akande characterised Lawal’s latest intervention as potentially rooted in personal grievance.
“But personal grievance cannot justify the manufacture of falsehoods against a man who served with integrity,” he said.
Akande maintained that Osinbajo served Buhari loyally throughout their eight years in office and headed an inclusive Vice Presidential team rather than the religious or sectional arrangement portrayed by Lawal.
“Prof. Osinbajo served President Buhari loyally for eight years, without blemish, with an inclusive team that reflected the best of Nigeria. The records are there for anyone who cares to check,” he concluded.
Felix Ifijeh is a journalist with years of professional reporting experience. Known for his keen news sense, compelling storytelling and commitment to accurate, impactful reporting, he has built a reputation for turning leads into clear, engaging, and well-structured reports that resonate with readers. His work reflects deep newsroom experience and a commitment to accurate, impactful journalism.
